More Central forces for Tripura but CM demands troops

Centre’s decision followed a meeting between Union Home Secretary Kamal Pandey and Tripura Chief Secretary V Tulsidas at North Block. Earlier in the day, the Cabinet Committee on Security reviewed the situation in the north-eastern state with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the chair. It was widely felt that more Central forces were required in the state to check the ethnic violence.

At present, 15 battalions of the CRPF have been kept in the state besides four battalions of Assam Rifles. Nine battalions of the BSF are deployed in the border areas which, officials said, could be diverted elsewhere at a short notice.

The CPI(M), which rules the state, has urged New Delhi for deployment of the Army without any further delay. The party, in a statement today, warned the Centre that “any attempt to evade the issue of sending back the Army which has been withdrawn from the state will be seen as a dereliction of responsibility. Without the deployment of the Army and sufficient patrolling of the border by the BSF, national unity cannot be defended in the state.”

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had also sent an SOS to the Prime Minister demanding immediate airlifting of at least five battalions of the Army for deployment in the affected areas.

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Agartala, Sarkar said: “I know that we have an elected government in Tripura but the situation here has gone totally out of control of the existing paramilitary forces. The Army is the only answer. I am demanding this taking into account the ground realities. Only the Army can now restore confidence among the warring communities.”

The Chief Minister had voiced the same demand before the Prime Minister, Home Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes when he met them in New Delhi on Sunday. “The Prime Minister assured me that he would look into it,” said Sarkar. “But till this evening there is no indication of any Army movement,” he added.

The Chief Minister said the Centre is trying to wash its hands off the situation, saying that adequate para-military forces are being provided to the state. He said for the past two years he had been demanding “an effective force” which could tackle the extremist outfits. The para-military forces have totally failed, he added.

The Left Front has given a call for a 12-hour bandh on Tuesday in support of the demand for deployment of troops and sealing of the borders between Tripura and Bangladesh and Myanmnar, said Gautam Das, a spokesman of the CPI(M). Das said the Centre was indulging in dirty politics by depriving the state of the Army and thereby discrediting the government.

Meanwhile, reports of a fresh attack were received today from the Panisagar-Nayagaon area of North District where members of the United Bengali Liberation Force of Tripura were suspected to have launched an assault on a group of tribals at a weekly haat (market). Four persons were injured in the grenade attack, triggering fears of a tribal retaliation anytime.

At the Kalyanpur refugee camp and in the adjoining areas, where the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) massacred over 20 non-tribals on Saturday, tribal youths today raided deserted hutments to take away whatever had been left behind. Of the 20 massacred in the camp, at least 13 were women among whom several were 80 to 90-year-old. “Women fell to the extremists’ bullets as they failed to run away like the men did when the assailants surrounded the camp from three sides,” said official sources.

A police contingent headed by a DIG, Kuldeep Kumar, was said to have intervened and drove away some of the marauding gang members from the area busy in looting property today.

At Maharani Palpara, close to the scene of Saturday’s violence, tribal youths set fire to several houses this morning. Such sporadic attacks and counter-attacks continued from both sides.

Twenty police station areas have now been declared `disturbed’ under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Parts of areas in another five have also been notified as disturbed, according to official sources.

Ever since the Autonomous District Council elections were completed in the first week of May in which the NLFT wrested power from the ruling LF, violence has taken a toll of over 70 lives. Forty persons have been kidnapped and are yet to be traced.